Portable Air Conditioners: The ugly side of coolness

[petek]

Veg, the Kenmore Powermate is blue.... My new Sunbeam Electric can-opener, which arrived today btw is TURQUOISE and even more faboo than one could ever have anticipated, it's FAB squared....I'll put a codicil in my will leaving it to you upon my demise

 

[veg-o-matic]

BOOHOOHOO!

It's even prettier than I thought! And would look SO good in my yellow kitchen!

By the way, uh, how's your health?

veg

 

[countryguy]

Hey Pete,
I have electric baseboard heat also and thus no ducts throughout the house but a couple of years ago I finally had had enough of sweltering at night and not getting any restless sleep. So I splurged and bought a split ductless A/C system. It is sort of like central air. There is the air compressor and fan outside just like central air and mounted on the wall inside at ceiling height is the unit to blow the air. It is about 4 feet wide by 18 inches high by 8 inches deep. The unit is almost silent so makes for good sleeping and it does a great job of cooling. I had mine installed in the master bedroom. I have a fan in the hallway that blows the air towards the living/dining areas. The unit helps keep the whole house cool. The unit is not cheap though, cost me about $3000 installed for the 12,000 BTU unit (they come in different sizes). They've had these units in the USA for years but only recently have come to Canada.

Gary

 

[petek]

Veg, my healths fine, thanks for asking LOL

Gary..we have one of those mini splits already. A Mr. Slim by Mitsubishi, the previous owners had it installed a couple of years ago so they told me. Not sure how many BTU but it does a great job, the whole main floor also the family/laundry room on the next level. The stairs in the pic lead up to the bedrooms where there was nothing and where all the heat gathered. Our heating is gas hot water baseboards not electric. The boiler is ancient original to the house being built in 1957. I had a plumber in over the winter to install an air bleed valve and check it out for me seeing as I knew nothing about them and also to show me how to check it etc myself, money well spent. He said it's quite possible it will outlive me. I really like it, keeps the house evenly toasty warm, is quiet, and we don't seem to have much of any dust like we did with the forced air furnaces we've always had.
Here's a pic of the Mr. Slim a/c

 

[alr2903]

just a suggestion Pete

Maybe a little platform the same size as the base of unit, maybe lift it up a foot or two and a pair of 48 inch long lined drapes, your window treatment is nice but some second hand thermal lined drapes might hook you right up,for summer time cooling season, and help with hiding those tubes, I realize your cooling season is short compared to the south, by the time you go through all i mentioned, you could probably just live with it. Looks like a nice a/c unit qvc had something similar on the other night. alr2903.

 

[foraloysius]

Pete,

Nice unit. You see those split airconditioners overhere more and more. They come with 1 to 4 units. I was wondering how they get rid of the moisture they get out of the air.

 

[midmer455]

Mini Split AC

Hello Everyone ..
Here's is a picture during the install of the Sanyo mini split system during the remodel of the kitchen (actually the entire house was remodeled). Power, refrigerant, and condensate drains are covered by the small plastic duct you see to the left of the unit. Painted to match the wall it is almost invisible. Excellent systems and the use of several units allows effective zoning. Use them to AC the entire house as there is no room for air handlers without giving up a lot of space. Use an Ultra boiler for the 4 zone HW heat. Not inexpensive systems but work very well with limited space for mechanical equipment.
Harry

 

[63getelevision]

Goodman

Here's a Goodman approximately 13,500 BTU mini split reverse cycle my mother had installed in 1998, it is under the dining area window (not a good place) because it was not possible to put it anywhere up higher in this house, for various reasons. I use a Wexford column fan and two table fans on the floor to spread the cool around. There is a window unit in each of the larger bedrooms, someone left the fan on in the back bedroom air conditioner, and due to my not being able to access it for several months, something died. It is a remanufactured Fedders, my old room has a working Whirlpool.

 

[exploder3211]

Curuious
What died? A plant or a cat or a person or? Am still tired.. May need to read later

 

[petek]

Eventually I hope to have another mini split with either multiple vents, one for each bedroom or a central, what they call "ceiling cassette" installed in the hallway up there. The ceiling cassette is basically the wall mount unit but squared and mounted flush into the ceiling. Not sure if this old house has enough space on the current electrical box to handle another one, so there's probably another expense getting that upgraded. Still in all, the longer you wait the cheaper these things become and the prices are already starting to drop dramatically from what they were a few years ago. Lot's of Chinese makers entering the market for them.

 

[countryguy]

The split A/C unit that I have is for A/C only but you can get them for both A/C and heating purposes. They also come in different BTU sizes - mine is one of the smaller ones. And finally you can get ones where there is one compressor outside but up to 4 units mounted inside so you could have them in different areas of the house.

Gary

 

[63getelevision]

I'm sorry, It was a dead A/C unit.

I was tied up in the hospital and rehab from June 10,'06 to July 25 same year, with a broken leg. Friends of mine cleared my living dining area of the "collection" and put it in my back bedroom. A friend had accidently left the blower on in the A/C, and by the time I was physically able to clear a path to it to turn it off, something had malfunctioned, and the unit is currently useless. After four or more months of it running, it's a miracle I didn't have a fire.